DATA AND CODE FOR REPLICATION OF  

Allen Blackman and Laura Villalobos. 2020. Use Forests or Lose Them? Regulated Timber Extraction and Tree Cover Loss in Mexico. Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists.

I. DATA: �BLACKMAN_VILLALOBOS_JAERE_2020.DTA� (STATA �DTA� FILE)

This Stata �dta� file is the final panel data set (n = 134,669) used to generate all of the results reported in both Blackman and Villalobos (2020) and the on-line Supplementary Information �pdf� file, including all tables and figures in both documents.

Note that some of the variable names in the data set do not match those in the manuscript. However, the variable labels do match. For example, in the manuscript, the name of the dependent variable used in the main difference-in-difference regressions (Tables 5-7) is �percentage cleared.� In the Stata data set the name of this variable is �loss.� However, the label of the �loss� variable in the Stata data set is �percentage cleared.� In general, data labels of all variables correspond exactly to the variable names in the manuscript. Table 2 in the manuscript provides a description of each variable in the data set, along with information on units, source, scale and years.  

II. CODE: �BLACKMAN_VILLALOBOS_JAERE_2020.DO� (STATA �DO� FILE)

This Stata �do� file uses the above-referenced �dta� file to generate all of the results reported in both Blackman and Villalobos (2020) and the on-line Supplementary Information �pdf� file, including all tables and figures in both documents. The code is annotated and should be self-explanatory.

III. OVERVIEW OF ASSEMBLY OF �BLACKMAN_VILLALOBOS_JAERE_2020.DTA�

Table 2 in Blackman and Villalobos (2020) lists the sources of data used to construct the variables in our data set and Section 5 discusses how these data were assembled and how our sample was selected. Here we provide a brief overview. 

The spatial unit of analysis in our study is a communal forest management unit (FMU), that is, ejidos and comunidades. FMU boundaries are drawn from Registro Agrario Nacional (RAN n.d.) cadastral data. These are vector (polygon) data. In some cases the polygons in the RAN data correspond exactly to FMUs and in other cases, they are at the sub-FMU level (for example, when an ejido is comprised of several �extensions�). In the latter cases, we combined polygons to create an FMU-level data set

As indicated in the �scale� column in Table 2, the (FMU-level) variables used in our analysis are drawn either from (A) raster or vector spatial data sets, (B), municipio-level data sets, or (C) FMU-level non-spatial data sets.

A. Variables drawn from raster or vector spatial data sets 

To create these variables, we used the spatial join function in ArcGIS. For example, to create the �historical rainfall� variable, we joined a raster data set on historical rainfall (Hijmans et al. 2005) with vector data on FMU boundaries (RAN n.d.). 

B. Variables are drawn from municipality-level data 

To create these variables, FMUs in our data set were assigned values for the municipality in which they were located. For example, the variable �marginality� is drawn from municipio-level data (CONAPO 2000). FMUs were assigned the marginality index for the municipio in which they were located. 

C. Variables drawn from FMU-level non-spatial data sets

A third set of variables were drawn from non-spatial FMU-level data. They include all of our  Instituto Nacional de Ecolog�a y Cambio Clim�tico (INECC) permit variables (�permit all years,� �permit early,� �permit anticipatory,� etc.) and all of our Padr�n e Historial de N�cleos Agrarios (PHINA) institutional variables (�ejiditarios�, �enrollment year,� etc.). A challenge in creating these variables was that neither the INECC permit data nor the PHINA data include a unique identifier found in our RAN (n.d.) cadastral data. As a result, we were not able to use a simple merge command in Stata to link these data to FMU polygons in our RAN cadastral data. As discussed in the manuscript, we merged these data manually using FMU names and locations (state and municipio). 
